Well, I was going to suggest that you didn't have a DVD codec, but WinDVD takes care of that. Can you play the video directly in Windows Media Player? If not, it's a WMP issue, but a reVue issue. (And I don't have any ready suggestions except uninstalling and reinstalling WinDVD.) If you can play it in WMP, let me know and I'll ponder a bit more on what reVue is (or isn't) doing.

I can play my replaytv files fine with VideoLAN. (I also used rtvtools by itself to edit and convert the files, and then successfully burned a dvd with dvd authoring software). I wanted to use revue.. but when I open a file, all i get is a black screen where the video should be.

It seems like WMP does not open it properly (should it?). If I try to open it in WMP, it gives this error:

You've encountered error message C00D11CD while using Windows Media Player

I also note that within revue, if I right-click in the black screen and click on 'error details', it says it's a WMP unknown error, and if i click on web details there, it notes the same C00D11CD error.

Am I doing something wrong? (winxp system)
thanks

ps my firewall also notes that revue tries to connect to the internet when you open a file--why is that? thanks

I can play my replaytv files fine with VideoLAN. (I also used rtvtools by itself to edit and convert the files, and then successfully burned a dvd with dvd authoring software). I wanted to use revue.. but when I open a file, all i get is a black screen where the video should be.

It seems like WMP does not open it properly (should it?). If I try to open it in WMP, it gives this error:

You've encountered error message C00D11CD while using Windows Media Player

I also note that within revue, if I right-click in the black screen and click on 'error details', it says it's a WMP unknown error, and if i click on web details there, it notes the same C00D11CD error.

Am I doing something wrong? (winxp system)
thanks

ps my firewall also notes that revue tries to connect to the internet when you open a file--why is that? thanks

Sounds like you don't have an MPEG-2 codec installed. The Internet traffic you noted is probably really due to the WMP embedded in revue searching for an appropriate codec._________________j.m.'s ReplayTV Tools
Home of WinDVA, the Win32 DVArchive launcher

reading more in forums, it sounds like revue won't play for me b/c i need a dvd codec. ok, i don't really know what 'codec' means.. but anyway, which should i use? are free ones available? (and don't i already have one since VLC plays the files fine?)

but i tried installing 'em, and still the same problem. do i have to tell WMP about the codecs somehow? if i use the 'classic media player' that seems installed with the k-lite codecs, it opens the files ok (tho i couldn't skip forward an hour into my show correctly). and like i said, VLC plays the files fine too (though the timestamps are wacky, i dunno why)--can i tell WMP to use what they're using?

reading more in forums, it sounds like revue won't play for me b/c i need a dvd codec. ok, i don't really know what 'codec' means.. but anyway, which should i use? are free ones available? (and don't i already have one since VLC plays the files fine?)

A codec allows your player to decode a particular format, in this case MPEG-2. Unlike most Windows players, VideoLAN doesn't use/require Windows codecs. It uses its own libraries to decode the formats it supports. This is a good thing because as you are beginning to discover, dealing with Windows codecs can quickly become a nightmare with conflicting codecs causing sync problems etc.

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and like i said, VLC plays the files fine too (though the timestamps are wacky, i dunno why)--can i tell WMP to use what they're using?

No, VLC uses its own libraries that aren't interoperable with WMP or most other players that uses standard Windows codecs.

MPEG LA, who adminsters the various patents on MPEG-2, charges a license fee/royalty for any product that decodes/encodes MPEG-2. This is why WMP doesn't include MPEG-2 support. In fact, there are few *good* free solutions out there. VLC is an exception, and there are a few others. MPEG LA apparently is somewhat lenient when it comes to freeware decoders (though the same is not true for encoders).

Anyway, there is a free MPEG-2 codec available here that may or may not work. The better MPEG-2 codecs come with DVD player software such as WinDVD, PowerDVD, etc. These have trials available and often when the trials expire the codecs still work (though the actual players don't). Another payware option is the Elecard codec. personally, I just stick with VLC. What it lacks in commercial skip, it makes up for many times over elsewhere._________________j.m.'s ReplayTV Tools
Home of WinDVA, the Win32 DVArchive launcher

many thanks, very helpful info. i'll try some of those options.
i see why i can't tell WMP to use VLC's codec, as you say.. but what about those k-lite ones, can you have WMP use those?
also, as a side note, any idea why the timestamps are screwey in VLC (i've seen others post the same issue, but haven't found a solution yet)?

many thanks, very helpful info. i'll try some of those options.
i see why i can't tell WMP to use VLC's codec, as you say.. but what about those k-lite ones, can you have WMP use those?

They should work assuming they include an MPEG-2 codec. I'm not a big fan of those codec packs because things can get really screwed up if you have too many codecs installed. Some of the packs now even come with a warning to only install the codecs in it that you actually need, not just all of them. The lack of easy management of multiple codecs in Windows leads to what people call "codec hell" where you can have multiple codecs installed that do the same thing, all trying to fight for priority. There are a few utilities that will give you info about which codecs are installed, search for problems, etc. GSpot is a good one. You can also run "dvdupgrd /detect" at a command prompt in XP, and Windows will tell you if it detects that a DVD (MPEG-2) decoder is installed.

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also, as a side note, any idea why the timestamps are screwey in VLC (i've seen others post the same issue, but haven't found a solution yet)?

The timestamps in the ReplayTV file itself are screwy because the ReplayTV doesn't generate proper ones since it doesn't need/use them. Some players are still able to display proper time because they don't use the timestamps either. To do this, from what I can tell, the player has to have complete info about the file beforehand. However, VLC is designed to play streaming MPEG-2, for which complete knowledge upfront is not possible. Thus, it has to use the timestamps in the MPEG-2 file, which as you noted are very inaccurate.

At one point a while ago, I hacked VLC to generate the time based only on the *first* timestamp in the file. The time was still inaccurate (because the first timestamp is still wrong); but at least the time reading progressed consistently instead of jumping around all over the place as VLC reads new, different timestamps. I never updated this hack for later versions._________________j.m.'s ReplayTV Tools
Home of WinDVA, the Win32 DVArchive launcher

So i installed powerdvd, and lo and beholds i can view things in revue, thanks.

However, one strange thing still. When I look at where the commercial breaks are on the time graph, they're off by ~0-30 seconds--that is, if i start playing at the 'scene break' where the commercial starts (according to the replaytv .evt file i guess, as indicated on the revue timebar), the recorded show is still playing--the commercial may start 15 seconds later. Same if I jump to the next scene break--it's still the commercial playing, and the show doesn't start for another ~10-20 seconds or so.

However... if I leave those scene-break times untouched, and create a file that skips them--the file perfectly misses the commercials! So the resulting file is not correctly represented by where the scene breaks *appear* to be based on the video that shows in revue at those times. This of course is a problem if I want to create my own scene breaks--such as when replaytv happened to miss a commercial. If I make a new commercial scene when it *appears* to be based on the video playback in revue, the resulting file will cut part of the commercial and part of the show, since the timing doesn't seem to be accurate.